1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a connector for containing a female terminal inside a connector housing and retaining the female terminal by a lance.
2. Background Art
In a connector for containing a female terminal inside a connector housing, generally, the female terminal inserted from the back is retained by a flexible lance formed inside a terminal containing chamber. The connector housing is manufactured by resin molding and in that case, molding of the lance becomes a problem. The normal lance is made of sections necessary to be molded from the back side and the front side of the connector housing by a metallic mold, and the section molded from the front side has a front end wall having an insertion hole (also called a pickup hole for a male terminal) of the male terminal of the mating connector side in the front end of the connector housing, so that the lance is molded by providing its front end wall with through holes for a mold. However, it is not desirable to remain many unnecessary holes which are not required functionally, that is, the through holes in the front end wall of the connector housing.
Hence, for example, JP-A-2006-302752 proposes and discloses a connector constructed so that a part including a front end wall of a connector housing having an insertion hole of a male terminal is constructed of a separate member and a lance of each terminal containing chamber can be molded from the front side of the housing in a state that the front end is opened without the front end wall.
As shown in FIG. 7, in this connector, a connector housing 100 is divided into a housing body 101 whose front end is opened as a recess 105, and a holding member 110 fitted into the recess 105 of the front end of this housing body 101, and the housing body 101 is formed with a terminal containing chamber 102 into which a female terminal 130 is inserted from the back, and a lance 103 for locking the female terminal 130 inserted from the back is formed inside the terminal containing chamber 102. In this case, the front end of the terminal containing chamber 102 is opened toward the recess 105 and the lance 103 is molded by using the recess 105 as molding space. Also, the holding member 110 constructing a front end wall of the connector housing 100 is provided with an insertion hole 112 for guiding the tip of a male terminal 140 so as to be fitted into the female terminal 130 by inserting the male terminal 140 of the mating connector side.
This connector is constructed so that the connector housing 100 is assembled by fitting the holding member 110 into the recess 105 of the front end of the housing body 101 from the front and engaging the holding member 110 and the female terminal 130 is inserted into each of the terminal containing chambers 102 of its connector housing 100 from the back and each of the female terminals 130 is retained by the lance 103.
Incidentally, in the connector described in JP-A-2006-302752 shown in FIG. 7, the front end wall of the connector housing 100 is formed as the holding member 110 separate from the housing body 101, so that the connector can obtain an advantage of eliminating the need to provide the front end wall (the holding member 110) with a through hole of the lance 103, but adopts a configuration in which the holding member 110 is attached and engaged to the recess 105 of the front end of the housing body 101 from the front side, with the result that by an operation etc. in the case of releasing fitting into the mating connector, a force in a direction detached from the housing body 101 acts on the holding member 110 and this may displace or loosen a united state of the holding member 110 and the housing body 101.